The Return of Lilietta - Chapter 202

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 202

‘I would have said it was okay.’

I would have held his hand, which was probably trembling, as he cowered in fear.

I would have told him not to be afraid.

His hidden contamination, his impulse to turn back time, his emotions that had become too twisted and heavy to simply call love, his fear and resentment as if he were the cause of all those nightmares.

It felt like we could have resolved things differently, but instead chose the worst possible path.

‘…The truth is.’

You were more precious to me than all those things.

Since I always pondered the optimal solution and did my best, I rarely had regrets, but I’ve been regretting continuously since that day.

“Miss?”

The maid called to her with confusion.

Lillieta closed her eyes tightly, then opened them and picked up the fake black dragon’s eye. She gripped it tightly in her palm as if it were a substitute for the hand she had lost, and smiled faintly.

“Thank you.”

She fastened her new cloak with that brooch and left the room.

Perhaps the maid who had asked about the meal menu had already spread the news, as the dining hall was already set with a morning feast and people were waiting to dine with her.

“Sister!”

“Welcome, Lady Raskail.”

Lucas, dressed like a nobleman—no, dressed as befitting a nobleman—jumped up and ran over like a puppy, while a large middle-aged man sitting at the head of the table rose from his seat to greet her.

The blue-haired young man sitting to his right also stood and bowed politely to her.

Though they were faces she’d never seen before, Rita could immediately tell who they were.

‘The Margrave and the Young Baron.’

The lord of Winterfield and his heir, who had skipped the social season to fulfill their duty of guarding the border.

Yesterday, Lillieta had kept her bold promise to Beacon’s youngest and hadn’t had a seizure.

However, she had pushed herself too hard, staying awake and squeezing out every bit of Ode she had with the dragon’s breath until the fleeting twilight, so she had lost consciousness on Lucas’s back as soon as they entered Winterfield’s inner castle.

That’s why she was only now meeting the castle’s owners who should have welcomed them.

She barely remembered the etiquette she had half-forgotten, grasping the hem of her cloak instead of a dress as she returned the greeting.

“May you be blessed with the Sun’s… vitality. I am Lillieta of Raskail.”

The Margrave with graying blue hair widened his eyes, then burst into hearty laughter.

“It’s been quite a long time since I’ve heard such a formal greeting.”

“Father!”

Lucas, who had been checking Lillieta’s complexion, turned around with sharp eyes, causing the man to quickly wave his hands.

“Don’t misunderstand, I’m not mocking her—I’m saying this because the Lady doesn’t seem accustomed to such etiquette either. No one ungrateful enough to find fault with the hero who saved Winterfield can survive on this land, so ignore such formalities and make yourself comfortable.”

His manner of speaking was straightforward, unbefitting a noble. Lucas let out a short sigh and pulled out Lillieta’s chair while whispering.

“Father isn’t very tactful, but he also doesn’t know how to be sarcastic or speak in roundabout ways. He’s been away from high society for so long… He’s trying to be considerate of you in his own way.”

“It’s fine, I understand.”

If interpreted in the capital’s high society manner, it would mean ‘Your etiquette is such a mess I can’t stand to watch, but since you’ve done us a favor, I’ll reluctantly put up with it.’ But the Margrave probably didn’t mean it that way. He genuinely wanted her to be comfortable.

‘The Margrave himself doesn’t seem to care about etiquette either.’

Sure enough, as soon as she sat down, the Margrave completely ignored the etiquette of serving meals to guests or the noble custom of starting conversations with the weather, and immediately got to the main point.

“Lady Raskail, I sincerely thank you for saving Winterfield. If not for you, we would still be fighting a desperate battle. How should I repay this—”

“Father, at least let her finish her meal before discussing this. How hungry must the Lady be, having just woken up?”

This time it wasn’t Lucas but the quietly sitting Young Baron who sighed and interrupted the Margrave. He too was naturally ignoring the etiquette that forbade mentioning a noble lady’s hunger or appetite.

The Margrave coughed awkwardly.

“Ah, you’re right. Please, eat first, Lady.”

“Yes, thank you.”

Rita, feeling more at ease instead, relaxed and ate as she pleased. Without worrying about the order of spoon, fork, and knife, or maintaining a ladylike posture, or how much she ate.

After the intense battle, having eaten nothing and slept like the dead, she was truly incredibly hungry. After emptying her bowl and asking the maid for another plate, which she also devoured, the Margrave grinned.

“Hmm, even after witnessing that legendary battle, the Lady looked so delicate when carried in unconscious that I honestly had some doubts… but my second son wasn’t talking nonsense.”

“Father, really! Sister, don’t listen to Father!”

Rita ignored Lucas jumping in place and wiped her mouth while asking back.

“What did Lucas say?”

“He said not to regard you merely as a precious young lady of a ducal house based on appearances. He said you were the one who beat the survival skills of the battlefield into him until he was half-dead. He also said that if not for you, he would have died long ago, swaggering around like a fool, and never would have made it home.”

“That’s going too far…”

She trailed off, somewhat flustered, and looked back at Lucas. The boy muttered with a bright red face.

“Ah, Father, how could you tell her all of that word for word…”

“You were so excited when you were talking, so why are you embarrassed now?”

The Margrave laughed heartily. Rita smiled slightly too.

Luca Pascal of the Ash-covered Era had almost no real combat experience for a Pascal’s Child of that age.

This was because he had been targeted by some sinister individual and became a collected item trapped in a glass box immediately after finishing training and enlisting in the Last Line of Defense.

The boy immediately after being rescued at Beacon was half out of his mind, and being called out for shows to stylishly kill already subdued monsters for the entertainment of the city’s elite, he didn’t know his true abilities.

While Sera Pascal had healed his body, and Oli Pascal had healed his mind through counseling disguised as common sense education.

It was Rita Pascal who directly trained him and made him capable of fully contributing as a member of Beacon.

‘Ethan did teach him close combat techniques, but he wasn’t the type to patiently take care of someone…’

Moreover, initially Ethan had greatly disliked Lucas. He called him a flower-brained burden of a kid and wouldn’t even acknowledge him as a member of Beacon.

‘That was only temporary though, since they all became close while struggling together in the war with the Commander.’

Anyway, that’s why Rita mainly kept Lucas with her as a vanguard, teaching him step by step how to act in real combat.

Since Gid and Rita were Beacon’s greatest forces and the leader and deputy leader, whenever they had to split into groups, it was always centered around the two of them, so she often ended up with Lucas.

Lucas had probably told his family about this to some extent.

The Margrave, who had been laughing while teasing his son, suddenly turned his gaze to Lillieta.

“Ah, and Lucas also said… that since you’ve experienced far more and fiercer battlefields than I have, I shouldn’t have useless doubts or worries and should just do whatever you tell me to do.”

“What? Do whatever I tell you?”

“Regarding handling and preparing for this situation, and searching for the black dragon.”

The Margrave returned to a serious expression and continued.

“I thought this incident was the beginning of the ‘great upheaval’ that His Highness the Crown Prince warned about. But it seems your judgment differs.”

So that’s what this was about.

Rita nodded and answered.

“Yes, it’s not. If it had been the great upheaval, we couldn’t have handled it so easily.”

“Handled it easily, you say. If you hadn’t come, Winterfield’s fortress walls might have fallen?”

“It was easy because it was a situation that could be ended by me alone. The great upheaval won’t be on that level.”

Since Winterfield would be the front line defending against a monster upheaval and was also Lucas’s family home, Beacon had shared many facts with the Margrave through him.

Lillieta briefly explained the differences between the great upheavals from Pascal’s history books and this monster rampage, then discussed her speculation about the cause of the current situation.

“So it’s likely because of that ‘black dragon’…”

The Margrave stroked his beard, lost in thought.

Only Beacon currently knew that the black dragon was the result of Gideon’s monstrous transformation.

They hadn’t informed Empress Ophelia about Gid’s transformation either. It wasn’t a truth the Empress, who knew little about monsters, could handle.

Beacon had only told the Empress, the Raskail ducal house, the Blen viscountcy, the royal guard, and other Crown Prince faction members that Gid had lost contact while pursuing a monster called the ‘black dragon.’

The same was true for the Margrave, so he only knew the black dragon as a type of powerful monster that appeared through the Grand Duke’s machinations, like the Kraken or Red Queen.

“Then, no additional response is needed?”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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